I was in grade 12 at Lakes District Secondary in Burns Lake when the eagle memorial was put up in front of the school. Every student at the school at the time contributed in the form of a metal feather that was worked into the final sculpture. Since then a lot of efforts have been made towards truth and reconciliation, but given that we are still at the beginning of healing the wounds of the past a lot of effort is still required.
When I first came into the program I had no idea what First Peoples Principles of Learning (FPPL) were. The main thing that stood out to me over the past year and a half is that these principles are very compatible with my own views on education in a lot of ways, and as I marinate over their meanings and try to implement in my practice I often find that they embody the natural course of a well-designed learning process. They are less about results, but emphasise how you get there, which I think can often be just as important.
In our Interwoven Indigenous Education course we were required to present a model, which was supposed to demonstrate our understanding of these principles. I chose to make a drum as I felt that it combined the essences of subjects like Math, Science, Music, Art, Communication, and Shop class with a very significant piece of Indigenous culture. Throughout the process of making this drum I thought how cool it would be to bring it into a Math classroom and use it to explain concepts like Pi and surface area, or to kick off the unit on sound waves in a Physics class in a fun, and culturally meaningful way. In our quest for reconciliation we are challenged to interweave Indigenous heritage such as these into our teaching practice. This is just one example of how to do it, but such implementation will require patience and time.
That is it in a nutshell. In essence I see the FPPL as simple truths that reflect a very sustainable philosophy about education and learning as a whole. In planning for courses they help to remind me of the purpose of my lessons.